Tivo alert: They're showing lots of classic Hammer Horror on TCM for this October, starting this Friday with Horror of Dracula (the first Christopher Lee Dracula, and the second horror movie of the Hammer explosion after Curse of Frankenstein).

They're also showing Brides of Dracula right after, and that's one of my favorite Hammers. It doesn't have Lee, but it has Cushing in one of his best performances as Van Helsing, and the story is really fascinating, lots of narrative twists away from the usual tropes, two really interesting female roles.

Ahh cool, Tom, thanks.

Loved the Hammer films when I was a teen!

Loved the Hammer films when I was a teen!

I've been watching a lot recently because I'm writing an article on early sixties horror. They vary quite a lot from flick to flick.

For example, their version of The Mummy is great - maybe the best - but all its sequels suck.

The Frankenstein movies are each different in tone and style, with the good doctor being shaded very differently in each one. At first he's arrogant, then he becomes more symphathetic, then he's an ice cold sociopath. But Cushing's great in all of them. I'm very curious to see Frankenstein Created Woman which has a curious premise (a man's soul transmitted into a woman's body. Something they'll go back to later in their Hammer career with Dr. Jekyll and Mrs. Hyde).

Lee was very hesitant to be typecast as Dracula, and had to be coerced back to the role. That's why he wasn't in Brides of Dracula and why when he finally returned he doesn't do any dialogue at all for most of an entire film.

I just watched the Hammer Phantom of the Opera recently and it's a weird mix of excellent performances (Herbert Lom is great in the lead), deadly slow pacing, weird focus (on the young lovers - who the fuck cares about Christine's beau?), and cool ass sets (loved the Phantom's lair).

We're watching Whip It. I don't think it's possible for Ellen Page to be any more adorable.

Lee was very hesitant to be typecast as Dracula, and had to be coerced back to the role. That's why he wasn't in Brides of Dracula and why when he finally returned he doesn't do any dialogue at all for most of an entire film.

At a Halloween shindig we went to last year, they showed old B movies all night, including Christopher Lee in the Hammer classic "Dracula and His Vampire Bride" (which IMDB tells me is "The Satanic Rites of Dracula"), featuring Joanna Lumley as Jessica Van Helsing. Fun!

the Hammer Phantom of the Opera recently and it's a weird mix of excellent performances (Herbert Lom is great in the lead), deadly slow pacing, weird focus (on the young lovers - who the fuck cares about Christine's beau?), and cool ass sets (loved the Phantom's lair).

I love this version beyond all others. I always wished the opera was real because I loved the music. I adore Lom and this is one of my favorite performances.

Lee was very hesitant to be typecast as Dracula, and had to be coerced back to the role.

And across the globe, thousands of impressionable goth girls give thanks that he was.

Hmmm, I think tomorrow's writing day will involve Hammer Dracula movies as background. Yes, that sounds like a good plan.

I bought Whip it a few months ago and I've already watched it three times. I never do that.

I always wished the opera was real because I loved the music.

Music by Edwin Astley who did the theme music for "The Saint" (that great whistled theme) and the theme for the pre-Prisoner "Danger Man."

eta: Also, he was Pete Townshend's father-in-law.